The state has decided to make Interstate 45 all one-way northbound from Houston to Buffalo, effective at 9 a.m.

Interstate 10 has been made a one-way highway in both directions all the way to Seguin.

Gov. Rick Perry made the decision Thursday morning to alleviate bumper-to-bumper evacuation traffic on the primary evacuation route, Texas Department of Public Safety Mike Cox said.

This is the first time the state has ever taken such a step, Cox said. The plan is an improvisation and has never been part of the state's emergency plan, he said.

Northbound traffic on I-45 is bumper-to-bumper for up to 100 miles north of Houston.

Texas’ homeland security director says he's spoken with the Pentagon about getting gas to Hurricane Rita evacuees stuck in traffic and who need it to reach safety.

For those evacuees fleeing from the Texas coast, there is a hotline number available if roadside assistance is needed. You can call the Texas Department of Public Safety at (800) 525-5555.

Monster storm

With frightening speed, Hurricane Rita has grown into a monster storm with 175 mph sustained winds in the Gulf of Mexico, sending more than 1.3 million residents in Texas and Louisiana fleeing for higher ground.

In Houston Wednesday, the blinking taillights of motorists headed north could be see from planes landing at Houston's William P. Hobby Airport on the south side of the city. All routes leading north and west were jammed with vehicles carrying boxes on their roofs.

Early Thursday, Rita was centered about 515 miles east-southeast of Galveston and was moving west near 9 mph.

Forecasters predicted it would come ashore along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi.

Galveston evacuated

At one point Wednesday two children in wheelchairs and a tired-looking woman in hospital scrubs sat at a bus stop waiting for a ride.

The island city is running short of buses to take people off the island, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said, and she warned stragglers may have to fend for themselves.

Officials in Corpus Christi have about 100 buses ready Thursday morning to remove people with no other way out. Forecasters predict the hurricane will come ashore late Friday or Saturday on the Texas coast near Galveston.

Worst storm ever?

Galveston residents wonder if Hurricane Rita will add to the city's legacy.

The defining event occurred 105 years ago this month and carries no name. It's known simply as The Great Storm of 1900 and secured Galveston's place in history as the scene of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States. At least 6,000 people were killed. A nearly 16-foot storm surge rode 150 mph winds ashore.

Two years later, construction began on the Galveston Seawall, a nearly 11-mile-long, 17-foot-high ribbon of granite.

But Galveston has grown beyond the wall.

“I hope we have something to come back to,” a woman waiting for a bus to take her to safety said.